A New State of Mind

In 2018, our TCL team started a pilot program called the Bridge to help people transition to independent living in their communities.

"We assess their capacity to live independently – their ability to cook for themselves, how they manage their personal hygiene or take medication without being prompted," said Roxanna Johnson, the TCL Housing Manager who oversees the Bridge program.

Caremoor, a Cardinal Innovations provider, staffs Bridge locations in Chapel Hill and Charlotte. The goal is to open a third location in Winston-Salem in 2021. People in a Bridge house stay for about 45 to 90 days and then they move into their own place.

Bridging the Gap from Adult Care Facilities to Independent Living

Often, those who are eligible for TCL have been living in adult care facilities, a state hospital or may have even been homeless for some time. So the move to their own apartment, where they can choose how to structure their days, may require learning or relearning some basic life skills.

"When you have a home, that’s an adjustment for folks," Johnson said. "When people come to Bridge housing, it gives them an opportunity to plan meals individually and for the group that’s living together because it’s congregate living. It gives them an opportunity to demonstrate their skills."

Currently, our Chapel Hill program has the capacity to serve seven members while the Bridge home in Charlotte can take six. "They’re people who could live in the community if they had adequate support," Johnson said.

An opportunity to demonstrate their skills

It's not mandatory. It's just one more resource for them.

"We have a lot of people who acknowledge that moving into a place of their own by themselves is frightening, especially for those who have been in an adult care home. Bridge housing helps people feel more confident that they can do well in their community on their own," Johnson said.

• Only 20% talk to a doctor about their symptoms
• Only 10% contact a mental health professional
• And 19% had no form of health insurance, according to a 2018 report

**ASK is designed to be the mental health equivalent to the convenience of dialing 9-1-1 for urgent physical care needs when crises arise. The 24/7/365 resource is staffed by licensed clinicians who can help assess the immediate need of the caller and then connect them to a network of providers designed to provide the care they need.

Individuals in a mental health crisis often resort to emergency settings that may not be best equipped to help them, and **ASK allows us to ensure that vulnerable individuals get the right care at the right time in the right setting. Dialing **ASK during mental health emergencies provides immediate resources for individuals to receive care with an added goal of partnering with hospitals to decrease the volume of crowded emergency departments during COVID-19 and beyond.

It is important to remember that health and safety are always most important. If you or a loved one are in immediate danger, always dial 911.

Journey mapping builds a person-centered framework for understanding the consumer experience and lays the critical foundation for making consumer partnership an enduring part of organizational culture*.

* Center to Advance Consumer Partnership

Funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Center to Advance Consumer Partnership (CACP) is working directly with both our internal teams and a dedicated group of members and guardians to integrate the consumer voice into our organizational decision-making.

A person-centered framework

Through the CACP model, our members are actively and genuinely engaged as experts in their own lives. Over time, their ongoing feedback and insights will translate into improvements in our overall care design, engagement, and service delivery for members with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Over the next two years, we will learn more than ever before about what our IDD members experience when they interact with us, what moments matter most to them, and how we can adapt to more meaningfully meet them where they are.